Integrated Learning At Its Best

The new push in elementary education is departmentalizing the subjects just as you would in middle or high school. What I mean by departmentalization is the students are given one teacher for math, one teacher for reading, one teacher for science, another for social studies instruction. This is happening even in second grade. I know that we have many professionals that do not have training and college degrees majoring in education that are now being recuited to teach. The task of teaching every subject in elementary school is a daunting task but, is assigning a 7 year old to four different teachers really going to benefit the student? I have found that young children learn best when subjects are integrated in such a way that can make connections. The homeroom for young children plays a much bigger role than just a place to put their bookbags and lunch boxes. That classroom is really a society within itself where children learn not only to read, add, and subtract. They also learn how to play with each other, form relationships, take chances in a safe environment that encourages creativity. Much of this is lost when the students take no ownership of their space. I hope that the trend turns back to one teacher with one classroom providing a place of growth and building connections before we start teaching the just the parts.
Tracy Fields

What can you measure in this picture?

The picture on this blog page shows one of the seats in front of my school. Students sit there everyday and probably never notice or relate anything that they are learning in math class with that bench. When you saw those blue tiles did any mathematical notion come to you? I can see students finding the perimeter of one square tile (P=s+s+s+s) or the perimeter of the surface. They could measure the volume of the rectangle (V=l x w x h). Are there places in your building that students could measure? How about the length of the sidewalk or the area of the lunchroom tables? For younger students they could identify the shapes. The possibilities are endless.
Tracy

Writing Long and Short Response Questions in Math

The importance of writing in Mathematics can no longer be ignored. Long gone are the days of computation skills being the measuring stick to student success. Students are now required to not only show what they understand but to also solve problems and justify their thinking. This no easy task and is one that must be started early. The ability for a student to express his understanding requires more than just mathematical knowledge. It also requires students to be fluent readers and well as writers. I encourage teachers from every grade level to incorporate "math writing" as well as "science writing" in to their language arts curriculum.

Broken Ruler Activity

A great activity that helps students to understand that measurement is not about reading numbers on the ruler but actually calulating an amount of space that an object takes up is called the "Broken Ruler" activity. A friend shared this with me a few years ago and I am always amazed and how difficult this is for students that struggle in math and measure. Here is what you do. Take a ruler and break both ends off so the students can not see the first or the last numbers on the ruler. This way they have no visual starting point and cannot rely on the number 1 to help them out. Next, take an object like a crayon or set of blocks and tape it to the top edge of the ruler at a starting number that they can see. So, if you broke the ruler off at the number 3, then tape the front end of the object at the number three as the straring point. The students have to give the measurement of how long the object is by finding a "starting" point on the ruler where the front of the object is and an "end" point where the object ends. Most students will assume that whereever the object ends is the lenght of the object. It a great activity for intermediate students. For primary students they make rulers without numbers on them. They are perfect for teaching measuring by counting space and not the numbers on the ruler.
Tracy

Starting early makes a difference

It has been my experience that most primary teacher spend a lot of time worrying about a student's computation skills when doing math. This is without a doubt an important skill, but what I have been seeing is that too much emphasis is being placed on the rudiment and process of adding and subtracting and not the meaning of what it is to add and subtract. What I mean by this is the teachers only concern themselves with the end result of a right or wrong answer. I would encourage the primary teachers to spend more time using base ten blocks and cuisannaire rods to show students grouping and place value long before they would ever write numbers. Especially in first and second grade. When I taught second grade the SAT Math was a oral test and the students had to understand the concepts of place value that didn't involve actual computation but mental processes involved in understanding place value. I was taught that you always start with concrete concepts before moving to the abstract concepts yet most new teachers have very little training in how to use concrete materials and representations in Math.
Tracy Fields

Fun with measuring

Students at a young age have a very difficult time understanding and using measurement. One activity that I have used as a culminating exercise with my fifth graders is to have them use their measurement skills to measure objects around the school building. The kids love it! I conduct it as a two day event but of course the activity can be modified to accomodate the skill level and time that is available for teaching Math. This activity is truly a "hands-on, minds-on" activity and challenges students to work as a team and apply what they have learned over the course of the unit. Application of a skill is considered a high level skill and although the students enjoy the freedom of being out of the classroom, the activity is not easy.
Tracy Fields